Too Wicked to Tame by Sophie Jordan
Too Wicked to Tame
By Sophie Jordan
Avon
March 2007
ISBN-10: 0061122262
ISBN-13: 978-0061122262
Once again Sophie Jordan steps out of the rarified world on the ton in a wonderful story of two people who have given up any hope of happiness, only to find love. Portia is the penniless sister of a duke who would marry her off to the devil himself if the price was right. She wants nothing to do with marriage, which in her experience is one step away from imprisonment. Heath is the victim of a family curse which makes marriage impossible, especially to a lady like Portia. And yet when he rescues her on the road in a bitter storm, the need to tempt her is irresistible—and tempt her he does. For the first time in her life, Portia feels desire for a man, and knowing Heath is reckless and dangerous only fuels the attraction. Although nothing technically happens
between them, they see in each other a passion that can never be and they part, never to meet again. Or so they both assume.
When they meet again, Heath’s outrage at what he sees as Portia’s plot to marry him backfires. Instead of driving her away, his insistence that he will never marry her suggests to Portia a way to avoid the humiliation of another season of husband hunting in London. Soon, however, they must deal with the undeniable attraction that could ruin both of their lives.
The characters in the story are especially compelling. Portia is a complex mix of independence and vulnerability, while Heath hides a deep sadness under an exterior of arrogance and anger. Even the secondary characters are multifaceted people who do more than act as a background to the heroine and hero.
While most regency romances tend to focus on social conventions of the time, in Ms. Jordan’s story the main characters have been badly damaged by their respective family situations and as a result live on the edge of polite society. Ms. Jordan’s story is more in the spirit of a Bronte than Ms. Austin, where raging passions are a curse rather than a blessing and love seems like an impossible dream. Still, this is a romance and the final resolution is even more satisfactory because the heroine and hero have had such a transformational journey. Too Wicked to Tame is a beautifully
written book historical readers won’t want to miss!
-reviewed by Lark Howard
